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So Brian Burke’s back with the Anaheim Duckshttp://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2013/02/21/so-brian-burkes-back-with-the-anaheim-ducks/
http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2013/02/21/so-brian-burkes-back-with-the-anaheim-ducks/#commentsThu, 21 Feb 2013 23:43:43 +0000http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/?p=152194There is one given in the NHL when a GM is fired during the season. Another one of the lodge-brothers will give GM X a scouting job because they’re usually thick as thieves, except if there’s a rogue offer sheet …]]>There is one given in the NHL when a GM is fired during the season. Another one of the lodge-brothers will give GM X a scouting job because they’re usually thick as thieves, except if there’s a rogue offer sheet out there for a player and words have been known to get x-rated. Plus, the fired general manager almost always would rather be gainfully employed rather than collecting a paycheck and watching games on TV until his contract runs out.

And so it is that Brian Burke is back with the Anaheim Ducks, with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Burke obviously coming to some sort of financial settlement because they still owed him what was left of his $5 million salary after they fired him last month. It was a tad silly to have Burke sitting in the Leafs’ press-box recently, needing a credential to scout for USA Hockey for the Sochi Olympics team. I mean, he was still working for the Leafs as a consultant, was he not? Yet he needed a pass to sit in the Air Canada Centre press area.

Burke has never been about not working since he had a summer job planting trees at blizzard pace.

One of his best friends in the game is Anaheim GM Bob Murray, who replaced Burke as GM when Burke left for the ultimate hockey job in Burke’s mind, coaching the Leafs in the Centre of the Hockey Universe. Burke had won a Cup in Anaheim and was looking for a new challenge in Toronto. Now, he’s back on the West Coast, scouting teams and players, and filling reporters’ notebooks in every stop, undoubtedly. This is a good hire by Murray.

I’m sure Scott Howson in Columbus will want to be working soon, too. Maybe the Blue Jackets who have offered a scouting position while his contract runs through next season. Maybe another team if he wants a new team jacket.

This Ducks’ comeback is likely only a pit-stop for Burke, though. He undoubtedly wants another GM job, but the Ducks’ hire gives him time to keep his competitive juices going until a general manager’s job comes open. Darcy Regier in Buffalo could be on the hottest seat after firing his coach Lindy Ruff. Regier has been on the job, coming up 16 years. Same with George McPhee in Washington, who was also hired in 1997. Both good men but both with fan bases well past the restless stage.

]]>http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2013/02/21/so-brian-burkes-back-with-the-anaheim-ducks/feed/0brianburkenhlbymattyWould Ryan Whitney be a fit in Ottawa with Karlsson out?http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2013/02/14/would-ryan-whitney-be-a-fit-in-ottawa-with-karlsson-out/
http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2013/02/14/would-ryan-whitney-be-a-fit-in-ottawa-with-karlsson-out/#commentsThu, 14 Feb 2013 23:53:15 +0000http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/?p=151118Ottawa GM Bryan Murray, who was wearing black as he told the media Thursday that the game’s best defenceman Erik Karlsson was gone for the season, jokingly said he’s getting lots of calls from “sympathetic” brethren around the league.

These …

]]>Ottawa GM Bryan Murray, who was wearing black as he told the media Thursday that the game’s best defenceman Erik Karlsson was gone for the season, jokingly said he’s getting lots of calls from “sympathetic” brethren around the league.

These are always tricky times for general managers when one of their own loses a stud player. They want to offer their condolences because–but for the grace of the hockey gods it could have been them losing a Karlsson– but they don’t want to appear like they’re an ambulance chaser. The don’t want to appear like Paul Newman in that classic movie The Verdict where he’s a down-and-out lawyer Frank Galvin, always first at the scene of an accident, with his card for any prospective client.

Undoubtedly, the first words out of other GM’s mouths are “geez, Bryan, what an awful break, that’s terrible news” before they eventually get around to “I was thinking, would you have any use for my guy…he was a heckuva player but, you know, we’re going in a different direction, and it wouldn’t cost you too much because his contract’s up July 1.”

Which brings us to the obvious question. Has Edmonton Oilers’ GM Steve Tambellini called Murray on Ryan Whitney?

Probably.

We don’t know if Whitney will be a healthy scratch for a fourth time in the last seven games when Colorado Avalanche are here Saturday night, but if Whitney is in the lineup, how long will he be in the lineup? Right now he’s in rotation mode with Corey Potter and Mark Fistric. He has to win back the trust of the coaching staff or he’ll get traded.

He’s gone from the dazzling high of his early Oiler days when he had 38 points in 54 games and was plus 20 after his trade from Anaheim in March of 2010 until he wrecked a tendon in his ankle right after Christmas that year, to his situation now where you’re asking every day “is Whitney in or out?”

Murray says he’s not waving the white flag on the season. He still wants to make the playoffs. He’s not giving away a first-round draft pick or a high-end prospect for a defenceman, but he does need help, and right now. There aren’t a lot of teams carrying extra D-men of Whitney’s pedigree. And Ottawa does need an offensive D-man if they’re losing Karlsson. I’m sure the Habs would move Tomas Kaberle now that P.K. Subban is back. Washington’s not playing UFA Roman Hamrlik but he’s 38. Mike Komisarek in Toronto is a defensive D-man. Tampa’s got Marc-Andre Bergeron, a shooter from the back-end. Nashville would give up Jonathan Blum, younger than the rest but with blemishes.

Here’s the questions you have to ask?

(1) How much could the Oilers get for a player who’s UFA on July 1, basically a rental?

(2) Do they really want to trade Whitney or do they want to see if they can rehabilitate his game because he has been a very good puck-moving defenceman who should be a top four guy but now appears hesitant on the ice?

(3) If they waited on Whitney until the trade deadline April 3, would they get more?

(4) Do they have to make some move quickly on a defenceman because when Theo Peckham returns from his conditioning stint in Oklahoma City they are going to have eight healthy blueliners, which is too many?

Personally, I think the Oilers should keep Whitney–they’re not so deep on their back-end that he can’t still be a useful player. They can’t just give him away, even if he’s UFA on July 1. But if they got a draft pick from the third round or better now wouldn’t they have to listen? If they got a third-round pick that would be a retrieval of the pick they gave Dallas for Mark Fistric before the season started. Considering the going rate in trades the last little while seems to be a fifth to seventh-round selection–Winnipeg just dealt UFA winger Alexei Ponikarovsky (good size, average hands) back to New Jersey for a fourth and a seventh-round selection–a third might look pretty good.

Still, this is a guy who once played on the point on the Penguins with Crosby and Malkin when they made it to the Cup final, losing to Detroit in 2008. He’s got talent. Right now, he doesn’t appear to have the same first step to effortlessly pull away from a checker and throw the 40-foot pass on the tape to a winger as he did when he was first an Oiler. Maybe that his ankle, maybe his confidence is shot. If it’s his psyche that needs work, they might be able to fix that. If it’s physical, if it’s his foot, then that’s another story.

Could the Oilers get more if they waited until the trade deadline? There might be more teams in the hunt, but still he would be a late pick-up and only for a few weeks. If you dealt for Whitney now, you would get him for 30 games or so. You might get more in compensation.

Certainly the return of Peckham will confuse things. He’s technically on their roster and part of their cap even though he’s playing in OKCity because it was a conditioning stint. But, when he’s back, that means two D-men sitting out every game. That doesn’t seem plausible. Up front, Shawn Horcoff is another three weeks from playing (broken knuckle) and fellow centre Anton Lander (busted foot) is weeks away, too. But Ryan Jones (eye surgery) might play next week.

Then we’ve got a real numbers game. Do the Oilers go 13 and 8 (forwards and defencemen) or 14 and 7?

*Dallas Stars’ Jaromir Jagr has told people he’d like to play until he’s 50, which is another 10 years. We’re talking this year and maybe another in Dallas and probably the rest back in …

]]>HIS ‘N THAT, BY THE NUMBERS:

*Dallas Stars’ Jaromir Jagr has told people he’d like to play until he’s 50, which is another 10 years. We’re talking this year and maybe another in Dallas and probably the rest back in the Czech Republic, where he owns the Kladno team. Jagr says the biggest difference he has found in today’s NHL isn’t the speed, it’s the lower-body strength of the defencemen. “When Jags came into the league, players had big upper bodies and he was the other way. They couldn’t hold him. Now training is different. Guys hardly have any pec muscles. They have massive tree-trunk legs,” said teammate Ray Whitney.

*It was interesting that Washington Capitals defenceman John Erskine (suspension) and Philadelphia Flyers winger Wayne Simmonds (concussion) returned the same day after Erskine’s flying elbow put Simmonds down. Erskine texted Simmonds to tell him he was sorry. Simmonds accepted the apology. “He’s a big, strong, stay-at-home guy. I’ve never seen him hurt anybody before,” said Simmonds.

*San Jose Sharks defenceman Douglas Murray is strong enough to clean and jerk a Zamboni, and his pilot light is always lit, but his lack of speed seems to be catching up to him in today’s game. Hal Gill is no gazelle in Nashville but he’s a B-plus player when it comes to ice savvy. He gets by on his positioning. Murray? He’s having trouble.

*The great defenceman Sergei Zubov, who was coaching in the Kontinental Hockey League after retiring, is now working as a consultant with the St. Louis Blues. His job is to basically look after dazzling Russian rookie forward Vladimir Tarasenko’s assimilation to North America. Zubov got the gig from Blues general manager Doug Armstrong, who was working for Dallas when Zubov played there. Ulf Dahlen was around the Stars when Swedish winger Loui Eriksson came over.

*Columbus Blue Jackets forward RJ Umberger has just two points in 12 games, including a goal he scored against the Oilers on Sunday. Would the Pittsburgh Penguins be interested in the hometown Umberger, who went to Ohio State and was an assistant coach there during the lockout? They need a top-nine forward, although Umberger’s salary ($4.5-million cap hit for four more years) is a huge gulp for any team.

*Ryan Smyth, who has taken about 3,000 cross-checks to the back and ribs over the 1,160 games he’s played, was reminiscing about the abuse he took from Derian Hatcher and Richard Matvichuk. Nobody was meaner than those two Dallas D-men as they guarded goalie Eddie Belfour’s turf. “When Hatch hit you, the stick felt heavier (in the back). But Matvichuk hit you an awful lot,” said Smyth.

*Farmhand centre Mark Arcobello is generously listed at five-foot-nine in the Oilers media guide but looks closer to five-foot-seven. TSN analyst Ray Ferraro is vertically challenged too. “I’m five-foot-ten, but Landon (his son) said ‘You’re not five-foot-10.’ I told him, ‘That’s what it says on my first hockey card. It must be true.’ ”

*The Stars have been taking grief because they dealt James Neal, who turned into a first-team NHL all-star and 40-goal scorer last year, but here’s how it went down. They had three good wingers — Loui Eriksson, Jamie Benn and Neal. They decided Neal was No. 3 in their pecking order. They didn’t know centre Brad Richards would bolt for the New York Rangers as a free agent and they’d have to move Benn to centre to fill that hole. They badly needed a puck-moving defenceman, so went for Alex Goligoski. In hindsight, that might have been their mistake. But they weren’t getting Kris Letang out of Pittsburgh. Maybe they could have called the Rangers on Michael Del Zotto. It’s all hindsight, but the optics were bad when Goligoski got scratched against the Oilers Wednesday and they played rookies Philip Larsen, Brenden Dillon and Jamie Oleksiak ahead of him.

*The Minnesota Wild are finding out what the San Jose figured out. You can’t change a leopard’s spots. Winger Devin Setoguchi has lots of talent but doesn’t bring it every night, which is why he’s prime trade bait probably for a defenceman. But his $3.25 million salary this year and next isn’t that appetizing for other teams. The Wild got Setoguchi, who had no goals in 10 games before scoring the overtime winner against Nashville on Saturday, and hot prospect Charlie Coyle from the Sharks for Brent Burns. They like Coyle, two years out of prep school, a whole lot better than Setoguchi right now.

*Did Chis Campoli get blackballed by the NHL teams for being a loud player voice in the labour dispute? He’s an average player, but there’s no way he couldn’t be a No. 6 defenceman on several teams for $600,000 in a league where teams are saying you need eight defencemen with all the injury possibilities of a short season. Yet he was off to Switzerland before visa issues KO’d that idea.

*When Winnipeg Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec is hot, he’s off the charts, but he’s also got a cold streak in him, and you can’t have that in an NHL starter. The No. 1 trait in a starting goalie is consistency of performance. Pavelec has a 3.28 goals-against average and .885 save percentage. Last year, he had a 2.91 GAA. That’s not nearly good enough.

*Referee Mark Joannette must have had every player pumping his tires last week, when he returned after Dion Phaneuf’s slapshot off the glass hit him in the face. Playing hurt wins points with players. Joannette lost two teeth and took 13 stitches. In Colorado, Chris Rooney took a deflected puck off his neck and didn’t come back, but is fine, now. Not being able to avoid a flying puck is every zebra’s worst nightmare — ask Don VanMassenhoven, who took a Sean Hill shot that caved in his face, requiring seven or eight surgeries and 35 screws in his face.

“I got a deflected puck off goalie Stephane Fiset’s stick once in Atlanta and fractured my left cheekbone. I knew it was broken because there was a hole in my face when I put my finger in,” said former referee Kerry Fraser, who was bare-headed. He banged on the glass at the Zamboni entrance and skated off right to the medical room. “The doc said it was a non-displaced fracture and wasn’t going to let me return and I remember saying, ‘It’s non-displaced, so my cheek hasn’t moved has it? Eric Vail, the Big Train, was in there too. He said ‘C’mon doc, let him go back out.’ I got a helmet and a visor.”

*If you’re wondering why the New Jersey Devils wanted Russian forward Andrei Loktionov from the Los Angeles Kings, he played with Adam Henrique on the Memorial Cup champion Windsor Spitfires, at the same time as Taylor Hall. Loktionov played 39 regular-season games and two in the playoffs for the Stanley Cup champs last spring, but none in the final and didn’t get his name on the Cup. The rules are you have to play 40 regular-season games or a game in the final.

Everybody gets their own room on the road now, except for players on entry-level contracts. It used to be you had to play 600 NHL games before you were accorded your privacy on the road. Teams liked putting an older player with a young player to show him how to be a professional. “Hockey is the ultimate team sport,” said Edmonton Oilers winger Ryan Jones, who says players have never griped about two to a room. “But that was the one thing Don (Fehr) was surprised about when he first came on (as head of the NHLPA).” If you’re wondering, NHL players get $100 a day per diem on the road now. *

By the numbers:

115 game winners in regular-season for Jaromir Jagr, three off Phil Esposito’s all-time high.

34.59. Ice-time Blue Jackets defenceman Jack Johnson had in a recent game against Los Angeles Kings, most by a player in a 60-minute game since Dan Boyle in 2008.

1,200 Martin Brodeur reached that milestone Saturday against Pittsburgh. His counterpart Marc-Andre Fleury was seven when Brodeur played his first NHL game.

]]>http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2013/02/10/mattys-short-shifts-jagr-wont-retire-anytime-soon/feed/0nhlbymattyRyan Murray and Oscar Klefbom shouldering painhttp://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2012/11/27/ryan-murray-and-oscar-klefbom-shouldering-pain/
http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2012/11/27/ryan-murray-and-oscar-klefbom-shouldering-pain/#commentsTue, 27 Nov 2012 16:11:25 +0000http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/?p=139677Canada’s junior team for the worlds in Russia over the Christmas break took a huge hit Tuesday when likely captain Ryan Murray was told the labrum tear in his shoulder would require surgery and put him out for six months.…]]>Canada’s junior team for the worlds in Russia over the Christmas break took a huge hit Tuesday when likely captain Ryan Murray was told the labrum tear in his shoulder would require surgery and put him out for six months.

The news of Murray’s injury comes one day after the Oilers announced that fellow defenceman Oscar Klefbom, who easily could have worn the C for Sweden at the world junior, also needed to get his shoulder repaired. Klefbom had been playing more than 20 minutes a night for Farjestads in the Swedish Elite League after being a first-team world junior team all-star last year when the tournament was held here and in Calgary.

With the NHL lockout on, the makeup of Canada’s junior squad at the worlds has been in major flux with chief scout Kevin Prendergast unsure who would be available. But, Murray likely would have been announced as part of the training camp roster next Monday with camp opening in Calgary a week later. NHL games are cancelled through Dec. 14, and even if the labour war were to end with the help of mediation, it’s unlikely the league would be up and running before the New Year, which would have made the defenceman Murray a key part of the junior squad.

The second overall pick in last June’s draft by the Columbus Blue Jackets likely would have made their roster but for the lockout. He had returned to his junior Everett Silvertips club but was injured over a week ago when he collided with a Victoria player Logan Nelson on a one-on-one play. He fell heavily on his shoulder. Murray, who could have wound up an Oiler at the draft in June with the scouting staff divided over the defenceman and flashy winger Nail Yakupov as the No. 1 selection.

The highly-rated Klefbom, 19, who flew here to be examined by Oilers medical people, will be talking today at noon about his shoulder problem.

]]>http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2012/11/27/ryan-murray-and-oscar-klefbom-shouldering-pain/feed/0nhlbymattyOilers can send guys to minors nowhttp://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2012/09/12/oilers-can-send-guys-to-minors-now/
http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2012/09/12/oilers-can-send-guys-to-minors-now/#commentsWed, 12 Sep 2012 16:59:22 +0000http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/?p=131357According to several reports, with a lockout impending, NHL teams have been notified there is a waiver window from now until 10 p.m. MDT Saturday to send organizational players to their minor league affiliates–well ahead of the usual 10 days …]]>According to several reports, with a lockout impending, NHL teams have been notified there is a waiver window from now until 10 p.m. MDT Saturday to send organizational players to their minor league affiliates–well ahead of the usual 10 days before the league season officially starts. This would apply to players on non entry-level contracts.

In the case of the Oilers, this would apply to players on two-way (NHL/AHL) contracts like forwards Dane Byers and Mark Arcobello, Chris VandeVelde, defenceman Alex Plante and goalie Yann Danis, although if teams were leery of players being claimed they could choose not to leave them available. Danis would be a prime candidate for a waiver claim as the best goalie in the American league last year in Oklahoma City.

You would think there would be a gentleman’s agreement to let all NHL teams slip their organizational guys to their minor-league affiliates without risk of a waiver claim for the time being so they have a place to play during a possible lockout, although Columbus claimed Anaheim defenceman Francois Beauchemin in 2004 during the last lockout. If there is a lockout (the CBA runs out at 10 pm MDT Saturday), those players sent to the AHL affiliate could be recalled when the lockout ends without having to clear waivers.

The NHL and the NHLPA have also said that 2012 drafted juniors can return to their WHL, OHL or Quebec Major Junior league clubs for the time being too and be recalled after a lockout which means Blue Jackets’ defenceman Ryan Murray will be back in Everett with the WHL Silvertips and Morgan Rielly in Moose Jaw with the Warriors. It won’t have any bearing on Oilers’ first overall pick Nail Yakupov because his agent Igor Larionov has said he would be playing in the KHL if there is a lockout, not back with the OHL Sarnia Sting.

Oiler players on entry-level contracts who spent a good period of time in the AHL last year like Teemu Hartikainen, Magnus Paajarvi, Anton Lander and Colten Teubert don’t have to clear waivers. Others on their first pro contract like Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall theoretically could play in OKCity as well if the Oilers wanted them too. They wouldn’t have to clear waivers. It’s expected that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins because he played in the NHL at 18, would be going to the AHL if there’s a lockout. Defenceman Justin Schultz, signed as a free-agent this summer, will definitely be going there.

The Oilers are supposed to have a rookie camp, starting Friday, but there’s no way they are going to fly in 30 to 40 players and take medicals with an impending lockout. They’re in a wait and see mode, for now. The OKCity Barons are supposed to open their camp on Sept. 28, a week after NHL clubs are set to open.

]]>http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2012/09/12/oilers-can-send-guys-to-minors-now/feed/0nhlbymattyBringing Grigorenko in a telling sign for Oilershttp://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2012/06/04/bringing-grigorenko-in-a-telling-sign-for-oilers/
http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2012/06/04/bringing-grigorenko-in-a-telling-sign-for-oilers/#commentsMon, 04 Jun 2012 20:25:50 +0000http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/?p=123510We knew Russian winger Nail Yakupov would be here to see the Oilers’ dressing room, be checked out physically and eat with the owner Daryl Katz. Defenceman Ryan Murray will get the same treatment Friday 2 1/2 weeks before the …]]>We knew Russian winger Nail Yakupov would be here to see the Oilers’ dressing room, be checked out physically and eat with the owner Daryl Katz. Defenceman Ryan Murray will get the same treatment Friday 2 1/2 weeks before the draft in Pittsburgh, but it is a little surprising that the Oilers are bringing in centre Mikhail Grigorenko, too, on Thursday.

Then again, maybe it isn’t. Maybe the Oilers and every other NHL club have learned their lesson from last June when Sean Couturier, who was trumpetted as a possible No. 1 pick overall going into the 2010-2011 season, got sick (mono), teams started to question his skating and he was still there at No. 8 for the Philadelphia Flyers to gleefully draft him shortly after moving two of their centres Mike Richards and Jeff Carter to Philly and Columbus. They got the eighth pick overall for Carter.

Couturier had a middling rookie season (27 points) but was very good in the playoffs (hat-trick in game two against the Penguins, second-youngest player to ever do that in a playoff game), and, by all accounts, will be no worse than a No. 2 centre with the Flyers for years to come because he is an accomplished player when he doesn’t have the puck, too.

Grigorenko, who played for Patrick Roy’s Quebec Remparts, was battling Yakupov in the pre-season polls for No. 1 pick but after an indifferent playoff when he only had 11 points in 10 games and was clearly outplayed by 17-year-old Nathan MacKinnon in a second-round series with Halifax, his stock dropped. MacKinnon, mind you, will likely go No. 1 or No. 2 in next June’s draft–he’s battling defenceman Seth Jones, who will play for the Portland Winterhawks–has huge talent.

Now it turns out Grigorenko had mono; he got a fever, but kept playing. His body was sufficiently sapped that he couldn’t do the fitness testing at the NHL Combine last week. Instead, his voice was hurting from all the interviews.

He’s exactly what every NHL team is looking for. The 6’3″ and 200 pounds centre. The tag-team partner for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins here or he could wind up in Montreal (third pick overall) or Toronto (fifth pick), or maybe he’s still there when Anaheim’s picking sixth Minnesota’s picking seventh or Carolina’s picking eighth. He’s intriguing. He still has a rep for turning it on when he wants to do and still getting his points in junior–almost an alarm bell for NHL clubs. And goodness know lots of teams have taken big centres with nice stats who didn’t pan out.

Lest we forget Jason Bonsignore in 1994, fourth overall here.

But, bringing in Grigorenko is proof positive he’s in the top 5 on Oilers’ chief scout Stu MacGregor’s list along with Yakupov, Murray, Swedish centre Filip Forsberg (no relation to Peter) and likely Oil Kings’ defender Griffin Reinhart. They already know Reinhart well although they might talk to him further in Vancouver, where he lives in the summer.

Grigorenko is still a longshot to get picked by the Oilers with their first selection, unless they make a trade and move back from No. 1. Same with Reinhart. But, again, the Oilers don’t just have holes on defence (read Murray’s coming in and the interest in the Oil Kings’ Reinhart). There is a counter-point to RNH too that has to be addressed. For now, Sam Gagner and Shawn Horcoff are No. 2 and No. 2a as centres behind Nugent-Hopkins.

The only question I have is this: what about Yakupov’s Sarnia Sting linemate Alex Galchenyuk, another big Russian centre who ripped up his knee this year, but has terrific ability. Is he not in MacGregor’s top 5? Is he not coming to town?

]]>http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2012/06/04/bringing-grigorenko-in-a-telling-sign-for-oilers/feed/0nhlbymattyLots of candidates for GM awardhttp://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2012/04/24/lots-of-candidates-for-gm-award/
http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2012/04/24/lots-of-candidates-for-gm-award/#commentsTue, 24 Apr 2012 17:52:07 +0000http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/?p=119272The NHL General Manager of the Year award is pretty much an in-house salute, like the movie directors voting for best director that year. They do let a select few scribes and some league executives jot down their favourites too …]]>The NHL General Manager of the Year award is pretty much an in-house salute, like the movie directors voting for best director that year. They do let a select few scribes and some league executives jot down their favourites too but basically it’s their baby, unlike the broadcasters, who pick the coach of the year which will be Ken Hitchcock.

Not sure what the award looks like (is it a trophy or a plaque with a picture of a GM with a cell-phone at his ear, sitting in a hockey rink?). Whatever, they’ve only had two winners–Don Maloney in Phoenix in 2010, trying to keep a team afloat that is sinking in a sea of financial losses and Mike Gillis in Vancouver in 2011 for putting together a team that won the President’s trophy.

This year’s finalists are Doug Armstrong in St. Louis, who picked up the phone one day in early November and asked a gob-smacked, out-of-work Ken Hitchcock, if he’d like to be his coach rather than Davis Payne; Dale Tallon in Florida, who was so far under the salary cap floor last summer he had every agent’s number on speed dial trying to give out three and four-year contracts, almost all of which worked out just fine as they’re one win from knocking New Jersey out in round one and David Poile in Nashville, who did his usual quiet effective job with the Predators and after years of trying managed to get Alex Radulov back from Russia.

A very good group, indeed. But there could have been three or four others for sure.

How about Paul Holmgren in Philly, who had the cojones to trade Mike Richards and Jeff Carter last summer, signed Ilya Bryzgalov to that $50 million deal, drafted Sean Couturier, and worked around the loss of Chris Pronger to a concussion? Or Bryan Murray in Ottawa. He made the right coaching hire in Paul MacLean and turned a club that many thought would be a lottery pick into a team that might make the Eastern conference semis if they can beat the Rangers in game 7. Or our Glen Sather in New York, still sucking on a stogie, and getting the Rangers to 109 points?

Who did the GMs give the most votes to? I suspect it’s between Tallon and Armstrong, myself.

The GMs do vote for for one other thing: best goalie. Vezina trophy.

Count on seeing Jonathan Quick, Henrik Lundqvist and Pekka Rinne when that’s announced later this week. All workhorses. I don’t imagine they can pick Brian Elliott or Jaro Halak in St. Louis, even with those 15 shutouts, because neither played more than 46 games. Elliott had nine shutouts in 38 games; Halak had six in his 46.